Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, the former wife of Nelson Mandela, has died aged 81.

South African broadcaster SABC has said the anti-apartheid activist died after a long illness, for which she had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year.

Family spokesman Victor Dlamini said in a statement: "She succumbed peacefully in the early hours of Monday afternoon surrounded by her family and loved ones."

Winnie and Nelson were a symbol of the anti-apartheid struggle for nearly three decades.

Mrs Mandela was born in 1936 in the Eastern Cape.

Winnie, a member of the ANC's National Executive Committee, was married to former South African President Nelson for 38 years, including the 27 years he served in jail, reports the Mirror.

Former president Nelson Mandela and his wife, Winnie, greet the crowd at an ANC conference in 1991, held inside South Africa for the first time in 30 years

During his lengthy incarceration, Winnie campaigned tirelessly for his release and for the rights of black South Africans, suffering years of detention, banishment and arrest by the white authorities.

She remained steadfast and unbowed throughout, emerging to punch the air triumphantly in the clenched-fist salute of black power as she walked hand-in-hand with Mandela out of Cape Town's Victor Vester prison on February 11, 1990.

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For husband and wife, it was a crowning moment that led four years later to the end of centuries of white domination when Mandela became South Africa's first black president.

But for Winnie, the end of apartheid marked the start of a string of legal and political troubles that, accompanied by tales of her glamorous living, kept her in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

As evidence emerged in the dying years of apartheid of the brutality of her Soweto enforcers, the "Mandela United Football Club" (MUFC), her soubriquet switched from 'Mother of the Nation' to 'Mugger'.

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Blamed for the killing of activist Stompie Seipei, who was found near her Soweto home with his throat cut, she was convicted in 1991 of kidnapping and assaulting the 14-year-old because he was suspected of being an informer. Her six-year jail term was reduced on appeal to a fine.

She and Mandela separated in 1992 - two years before he became South Africa's President - and her reputation slipped further when he sacked her from his cabinet in 1995 after allegations of corruption.

The couple divorced a year later, after which she adopted the surname Madikizela-Mandela. But despite the divorce, and Nelson's second marriage in 1998, Winnie maintained close ties to her former husband.